CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
265 km from Fresnes-sur-Escaut to Fresnes-sur-Escaut, about 3 h 45 of riding. It goes by way of Cité de la Parisienne, Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Aire-sur-la and back through Cité de la Parisienne. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
At Condé-sur-l'Escaut, right on the Belgian border, the coal basin of northern France reaches its eastern end, and the old mining site of Chabaud-Latour shows how industry and nature have come to terms. A pit operated here for decades, and today what remains is a landscape of slag heaps, ponds formed by mining subsidence, woods and wetlands, part of the UNESCO site of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers de Chabaud-Lat write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Paysage et ensemble miniers de Chabaud-Lat is where the day begins. Next is Cité de la Parisienne.
Drocourt is the sort of place you could ride through without a second glance, and you would miss a small piece of the story of northern France. The Cité de la Parisienne is a mining housing estate on the edge of the town, a grid of brick houses built by the coal company for its workers and their families, part of the UNESCO-listed Mining Basin. The name comes from the company that dug coal here. Hénin-Beaumont and Rouvroy press in on either side, and the black cones of the slag heaps rise above the rooftops.
Read the complete Cité de la Parisienne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cité de la Parisienne comes up 63 km in. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Aire-sur-la-.
Aire-sur-la-Lys is the kind of small French town that rewards a slow walk with no plan. Its belfry rises from the eighteenth-century town hall on the Grand Place, an elegant classical building topped by a tall tower with a lantern and a carillon, and it is part of the UNESCO listing of belfries of Belgium and France. Across the square stands the Bailliage, a richly decorated Renaissance building from around 1600, with arches, carved figures and a little loggia, which once housed the guard and the town's officials. A few streets away, the great collegiate church of Saint-Pierre, built in a flamboyant Gothic style, rises above the rooftops.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Aire-sur-la- write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
126 km in you reach Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Aire-sur-la-. Next is back through Cité de la Parisienne.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité de la Parisienne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cité de la Parisienne, late in the day. Next is Paysage et ensemble miniers de Chabaud-Lat.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers de Chabaud-Lat write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Paysage et ensemble miniers de Chabaud-Lat. That is the ride.
Paysage et ensemble miniers de Chabaud-Lat → Cité de la Parisienne is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité de la Parisienne → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Aire-sur-la- is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Aire-sur-la- → back through Cité de la Parisienne is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité de la Parisienne → Paysage et ensemble miniers de Chabaud-Lat is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.